by Todd Abeln
Thisweek Newspapers

New coach, new direction, better results.

Rosemount girls' hockey players and fans sure hope so.

The Irish have a new head coach in Tracy Engstrom, and they hope her direction will lead the Irish to more victories in the future.

Engstrom, who was an assistant coach at Eastview and played hockey for the University of Minnesota, takes over the program and the early results are getting better.

The Irish will play a full Lake Conference schedule for the first time in two years and improvement is evident on the ice.

Rosemount lost 13-1 to Eden Prairie but Engstrom said the game was closer than the score indicated. The Eden Prairie coach told her the next day that Rosemount has really improved from last year.

Engstrom said she took the job because she works in the district and that she thinks Rosemount can be good.

"I felt like I was ready hockey wise, the hockey has never been a concern for me," she said. "I could make this program into what I want it to be and make it my own."

So far, Engstrom has seen improvement in the program and she expects more.

"The kids are progressively improving every day," she said. "They come to work every day, they work so hard."

Engstrom said her captains Stacy Gerths, Brenna Gould and Megan Langfield have done a great job.

"Those three have done a tremendous job on and off the ice of being leaders," Engstrom said.

The Irish are a young team with only two seniors and six juniors on the team. The team has two eighth-graders in Allison Micheletti and Rachel Kelly. They also have six freshmen and three sophomores.

"We are a very young team that is eager to learn, work hard and improve on a daily basis," Engstrom said. "We are already a much improved team from last year and striving to get better every day."

Todd Abeln is at sports.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.